How to memorise better

When it comes to memorising, there are two options: Either the new fact must be a logical addition to something we already know or it must be extremely strange. The first option speaks for itself. As young schoolchildren, we learned about cats since they were part of our surroundings, after which we learned about tigers, which we were told belonged to the cat family. They looked alike so we could understand that. Leopards and lions were then easy to remember since they looked like cats and tigers.

The second option, the instant memorisation of information, brings us to far more interesting methods to quickly remember a lot of things. We know and remember what we were doing at the moment we heard the Twin Towers in New York were attacked or when terrorists stormed The Taj Hotel, due to fact that the attack was very strange and new to us. All methods come down to the simple idea of linking something strange to something you know.

Presented below are five general tips students can utilise to improve memory and better retain what they study.